


5 Times Nora Cried And 1 Time She Laughed

by Nightelfbane



Series: Pre-War Relics [1]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Crying, Curie appears in chapter 3, Deathclaws, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning, Gun Violence, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Spoilers, Violence, fuck the Institute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-05-28 09:16:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15045797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightelfbane/pseuds/Nightelfbane
Summary: What it says on the tin. Spans the whole game.





	1. Out Of The Freezer...

**Author's Note:**

> If you see any grammatical or spelling errors, please point them out so I can correct them!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora wakes up after 200 years and meets an old friend.

Nora trudged down the road in a daze, not really knowing where she was headed. An ancient 10mm pistol was hanging loosely from her right hand, while a simple gold band was hidden in her left. She paid scant attention to the dead trees or broken houses she passed by. Instead, her mind was preoccupied with the voices of her husband and the scarred man, and the sound of her son's screaming.

_"I'm not giving you Shaun!"_

The memory of the ensuing gunshot jarred her out of her daze, and she finally raised her head and looked at her surroundings. 

The ruins of Sanctuary Hills loomed around her. Fallen streetlights littered the road she stood on. Sickly yellow grass sprouted miserably under a gray sky. Any houses that were still standing were bare husks of what they used to be, with tattered walls, shattered windows, and partially collapsed roofs. 

Nora turned slowly in a circle, despair threatening to overwhelm her as she took it all in.

Her home destroyed. Her husband murdered. Her son kidnapped. 

She was ready to sink to the ground in defeat, to give up and let the elements take her, when a familiar sound came from out of the house behind her. She turned, her pistol halfway up as she tried to locate the source.

Before her stood...God, that was  _her_ house. The one she had lived in what felt like hours before. She hadn't even recognized it with all the damage. 

And floating in the doorway was...

"Mum?"

Codsworth.

"Mum? Is it really you?" With the same familiar  _whoosh-clank_ that she had heard before, Codsworth floated over to her, his three arms waving agitatedly.

Nora watched him approach with wide eyes. Codsworth was different from when she last saw him. His shiny chrome plating had rusted and dulled, and there were a couple of dents in his round body. But the robot hovering before her now was definitely Codsworth.

"It really  _is_ you! You've come back!" Codsworth ecstatically exclaimed, before he realized something. "Mum? Where is Sir and young Shaun?"

The dam that Nora had held within herself broke. A choked sob escaped her as she dropped her gun and threw her arms around a startled Codsworth. She pressed her face to his warm plating as she cried and clung to the only family she had left.

Codsworth, recovering from the unexpected emotional outburst, awkwardly raised his pincer arm and patted her back. "There there, Mum. I'm sure Sir and young Shaun will return soon. You'll see..." he said comfortingly, not understanding why she only started to cry harder.


	2. ...And Into The Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora goes to Concord.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, if you see any grammatical or spelling mistakes, point them out so I can fix them.

Nora remembered the T-60 series of Power Armor from the propaganda programs.

Filled with the very latest military technology, the T-60 series was the cutting edge of Power Armor. Any soldier wearing a T-60 suit was transformed into a shining silver behemoth capable of moving through almost any battlefield with ease.

What she found on the roof of Museum of Freedom was  _not_ a T-60. 

Nora stared at the rusted, outdated T-45 as hopelessness swelled within her belly. There were more than a dozen "raiders", as Preston had called them, on the streets of Concord below. She could hear them exchanging fire with him, the _pop-pops_ of their pipe guns interspersed with the louder, deeper  _thrum_ of Preston's laser musket.

How the hell was this ancient pile of scrap supposed to take them all on?

She swallowed her doubts and slammed the fusion core into the armor's back.

Nothing happened.

 _Uhh..._ _?_ How the hell are you supposed to open this thing? Was it broken?

Her doubts surged back to the surface as Nora's thoughts drifted to her husband. Damnit, he was the soldier, he would know what to do! He should have been the one to survive...

She clenched her eyes shut and took a deep breath. Wallowing in guilt and self pity would not help her, Shaun, or any of the people in the museum who were counting on her.

She opened her eyes and looked over the rusted suit. There must be a button or a lever or-a valve! The fusion core port was set in the center of a valve or a wheel. She grabbed it and twisted it sharply to the left.

Nora leapt back, startled, as parts of the armor suddenly unfolded like the petals of an enormous metal flower. With a triumphant grin, she climbed in and the armor sealed itself around her. She took a moment to get used to the feel of of the armor and the HUD before she tried to move. Her first few steps were halting, clumsy things as the joints shook off two centuries of wear and neglect. 

And then, when she tried to take another step towards the vertibird and the minigun inside it, her foot flew out in front of her and she toppled backwards, landing hard on her ass. 

She stared up at the cloudy gray sky, momentarily dazed.  _What the hell?_

Right. Powered armor. The suit amplified her movements. She didn't need to use nearly as much effort as usual now. Slowly, gingerly, she managed to climb back to her feet. Moving with gentle twitches of her muscles, she made her way into the vertibird. A minigun was mounted on the far side, and after some fumbling she managed to disconnect it from the tripod.

She made her way to the edge of the roof, where she was surprised by flashes of light and loud clangs of metal on metal. A raider stood on the roof on the opposite side of the street, firing her pipe rifle at her. Nora couldn't even feel the bullets' impacts against her armor.

Taking a deep breath, she aimed the minigun and depressed the trigger.

The raider's body jerked as the stream of bullets tore through her. She fell backwards, blood pooling below her.

Looking down at the street, she could see the other raiders taking cover behind various bits of debris and wreckage, ducking out to fire at Preston before taking cover again. Brief, blood red beams lanced out from his perch towards the raiders. As Nora watched, one beam caught a raider in the chest. With a brief scream, he was incinerated on the spot. But there were still more than a dozen raiders.

Nora knew that Power Armor could protect its wearer from a fall of almost any height. However, that didn't make her feel any better about jumping from the roof of a three-story building. 

 _Please let the fall compensators still be working,_ she prayed, right before she jumped.

Despite being prepared for the fall, she still screamed as gravity took hold. She hit the concrete, the ground shaking as the armor's mechanized joints compensated for the impact.

The screaming and the tremor drew the attention of every raider in the area. After a moment of shock, they all opened fire on her instead of Preston. Nora raised the minigun and returned fire. Raiders fell as she sweeped the minigun from side to side. She slowly advanced up the street, stepping over the bodies of dead raiders.

By the time she had made it halfway up the street, there was only one raider left. Before Nora could bring the minigun to bear, he turned and ran, screaming obscenities. He made it ten steps before the street crumpled beneath him and he fell.

From the sinkhole emerged a nightmare. Horns and scales, claws and teeth. Bile rose in Nora's throat when she saw the raider held in its jaws, struggly weakly. The monster raised a single clawed hand and speared the man before ripping him in half. 

Nora took an involuntary step back at the sight. The whirr of the armor and the impact of the metal boots on the concrete was deafening in the relatively quiet atmosphere.

The monster turned its beady yellow eyes on her, and Nora's stomach dropped.

The monster reared up and roared at her, primal and savage, dropping the raider's legs in the process. It dropped to all fours and charged, eating up the meters between it and Nora.

She raised the minigun and fired, screaming. The monster zigged and zagged, dodging her bullets. She kept the minigun trained on it as best she could, but it was suprisingly agile and quick on its feet.

The gun's roar abruptly gave way to a quiet whirr, drum empty, the barrels spinning uselessly. Nora didn't have time to reach for another drum before the creature barreled into her, horns ripping into her chestplate. She was tossed backwards and she lost her grip on the minigun as she fell to the ground. 

The nightmarish thing towered above her, snarling. It raised its arm to strike.

A dead raider lay to Nora's right. A crude pistol sat next to him, an ugly amalgamation of pipes and wood. She grabbed it, raised it, and pulled the trigger as the monstrous clawed hand descended. 

A brief spray of gunfire mingled with the screech of tortured metal as the creature's claws tore through Nora's helmet. The left side of her face erupted in agony as her HUD died, leaving her blind and screaming.

Nora clawed at her face, frantically trying to get the broken helmet off. Her armored hands wrenched the rent helmet off of her head and tossed the fragments away. Blood stung her left eye and ran down her face, oozing from a long gash from her forehead to her jaw. Thankfully, her eye was intact, though clenched shut against the stinging. 

The monster, who had backed up a few steps, was in a similar state. As she scrambled to her feet, Nora caught a glimpse of its face. Its right eye had been replaced with a mess of gore, and dark red blood flowed down its face and dripped from its chin. It's remaining eye glared at her, filled with hate and animal hunger. 

It opened its maw and roared again and from this distance, barely out of arm's reach, she could smell the wet stench of rotting meat. It stepped forward, raising its hand to strike. Nora raised her fists-

-a bloodred beam of light lanced out from Preston's perch, turning the left half of the creature's face to glowing ash. It stumbled backwards, completely blinded now, growling. Nora stepped forward and put all her enhanced strength into a right hook. 

The thing heard her clanking armor and swung a wild slash at her. Her mighty swing turned into a glancing blow off of its remaining horn as she was shoved to the side with a grunt. Another shot from Preston's laser musket incinerated some of the thick, spikey armor on the monster's back and it whirled around, snarling, trying to catch the source of its pain.

While it was distracted, Nora cast her gaze around the raider corpses littering the street, searching for a new weapon. There: a wicked looking machete, clutched in dead hands. She ran towards it and grabbed it while the blind monster slashed and roared ineffectively.

Nora charged again. She was prepared for its wild strike this time, and batted it away with her armored left arm. She slammed into the thing's body and bowled it to the ground in a tangle of limbs. 

Nora landed on top. The creature gave a wet gasp and flailed at her. She kept her unprotected head down as its claws scored deep gouges in the back of her armor. After a few moments, the creature's struggles weakened and its arms collapsed to the ground. Nora gingerly climbed to her feet once she was sure it wouldn't start attacking again.

She looked down at the thing laying pitifully in the street. The machete was buried to the handle in the monster's unarmored belly. It was still breathing, though it was weak and gurgly. 

Preston and the others burst through the doors of the museum just in time to see Nora slam her powered foot down on what was left of its head, crushing its skull and putting it out of its misery.

She was startled by the cheers that erupted from the group, but relaxed once she realized it wasn't a new threat presenting itself. After some fumbling, she managed to unseal the suit and climb out.

She collapsed to her knees as soon as she was free. Her breath was coming in shaky sobs. The adrenaline of the fight had held the pain and fear away, but now she was trembling all over, and her face felt like it was on fire, and her stomach-

Nora bent forward and retched onto the street.

"Shit," she heard someone say, and then hands were gathering her gray hair out of her face as she vomited up her 200-year-old breakfast.

When she was done, Preston put his hand on her shoulder. "Are you o- "

She slapped his hand away. "No! No, I am not fucking okay!" She surged to her feet, angry tears leaving tracks through the blood and dirt on her face. "I wake up after 200 years and my husband is dead, my son has been kidnapped, there are fucking  _raiders_ roaming around murdering everyone - " She was shouting now, waving her hands wildly as she ranted. The entire group had stopped what they were doing and were staring at the raving, bloody, crying woman in their midst. "- and to top it all off there are fucking  _dinosaurs_  loose eating people?"

Nora paused, took a deep breath, and pointed at the scaled, horned monstrosity laying dead on the concrete. " _What the fuck is that thing?!"_

She collapsed back down on the street, all her fire gone. "I-I'm just a fucking lawyer!" She sobbed. 

Nobody really knew how to respond to all that.

Eventually, Preston knelt next to her and put his hand on her shoulder again. "Nora," he started. "I don't know anything about half of what you just said, but I do know that we need to get that gash on your face fixed up. Okay?"

Nora tried to bring her crying under control as she nodded. "Okay."

Sturges soaked a rag in alcohol and handed it to Preston, who cleaned her face as gently as he could. Everyone else got to work looting the raiders and butchering the monster.

Except Mama Murphy. She sat on a piece of rubble next to Nora as Preston injected her cheek with a stimpak. She winced at the feeling of her flesh and skin knitting itself back together.

"Feel better?" Preston asked.

"A little," she said, flexing her cheek muscles. "It feels different."

"Stimpaks can't fix everything, kid," Mama Murphy said. She held out a silver compact. Nora took it and looked at her reflection. 

A thick scar ran down the left side of her face through her eye which was, thankfully, undamaged. It was bright, angry red. She fingered it gingerly, but it caused no additional pain. 

She handed the compact back to Mama Murphy, and then remembered something.

"You knew," she said. "You talked about the-the monster."

Murphy nodded. "They're called deathclaws. I knew it was coming because of The Sight."

Right. The Sight. Nora had thought the old woman was crazy, but apparently she really did have psychic powers.

Deathclaws, psychics, and raiders. The world had gotten strange in the past two centuries.

An hour later, Nora was back in the power armor with a large pack slung over her shoulder. It was full of ammo, weapons, and armor looted from the raiders. The raiders themselves had been dragged into a pile and burned. The deathclaw had been thoroughly butchered. The other survivors carried its hide, bones, meat, claws, and teeth in their packs.

Nora began trudging northwest towards Sanctuary Hills. The refugees followed, leaving Concord and the smell of burning flesh behind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Protip: you are not supposed to clean wounds with alcohol. Use clean water instead.
> 
> Also I swear I'm not trying to novelize the game. The next chapters won't be me retelling any specific quests.


	3. Moving On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora says goodbye to her husband before she infiltrates the Institute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how to write angst. Am I doing this right?
> 
> As usual, point out any spelling or grammatical mistakes if you spot any.

_I don't want to be here._

Nora shivered as the elevator finished its slow, grinding descent into Vault 111. She had long since ditched the vault suit she used to wear. Now she wore road leathers, topped by metal armor when she expected trouble. 

Curie stood behind her, also shivering in her new body. Piper, Hancock, Valentine, MacCready, and Cait were present as well, everyone except Valentine looking chilled. Piper and Valentine had bundles of blankets in their arms.

 _I_ really _don't want to be here,_ Nora thought again as she watched the metal gate rise up, letting her step off the elevator. Before her lay the entrance to the main vault. She marched forward before she could change her mind and climbed the stairs to the left, her breath misting the air as she did so. Her companions followed suit.

The ice of Vault 111 settled in her chest as she stood in the entryway the facility, looking with numb eyes at the two corridors before her. The one to the left lead to the Overseer's office. The one to the right...

"This way," she said tonelessly. She led them down the right corridor. She stopped at the doorway located halfway down the corridor. She gazed into the room at all the cryopods, her thoughts 200 years away. 

"Is this where, you, uhh...?" MacCready started.

Nora shook herself out of her reverie. "No, I was down there," she said, pointing down the hallway to the other chamber. "Okay. Curie and Nick, you're with me. Everyone else, take this room."

Curie and Nick followed her down the corridor into the other room. Nora kept her eyes on the ground as she walked, refusing to look at the cryopods on either side, refusing to look at the faces through the glass. She didn't look up until she got to the open pod at the end of the left row.

It was still splayed open from when she first crawled out. She placed a hand on the freezing metal, wondering what things would be like if she had been carrying Shaun instead of Nate, if the pod had never opened and released her, if they had never made it into the vault in the first place - 

If, if, if, if -

"Madame?"

Nora snatched her hand away from the pod. She turned to look at Curie, and at the sight of her concerned face, some of the ice in her chest thawed just a tiny bit. The robot-turned-synth put a supporting hand on Nora's shoulder. 

"Madame, are you well?" She asked.

Nora smiled weakly. "Yeah. Well, no, but..."

"You want to go back up?" Nick asked kindly. "We can handle things down here."

"No," replied Nora. "Thank you, but I need to do this. I owe it to them."

They nodded, understanding. Nora finally turned and forced herself to look at the pod across from hers.

Nate's pod.

Thankfully, the cryopods had kept operating at mimimum functionality, keeping their contents from decomposing. Nate still looked just like he did when he stepped into the pod 200 years ago.

Except for the hole in his forehead, of course. Nora had to clench her fists and repeatedly remind herself that Kellog was dead, lying facedown on the floor of Fort Hagen with his skull cracked open and his brain ripped out.

She unclenched her fists and took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's get started." She hit the control to open the cryopod. The front of the pod swung upwards, revealing its grim contents.

Nate's body was still covered in a thin coating of frost, which cracked and melted as Nora slung him over her shoulder. Followed by Nick and Curie, each also carrying a deceased resident of the vault, she made her way back to the elevator.

* * *

Nora knelt in front of the Sanctuary Hills' new cemetary, looking over the thirteen wooden crosses that Codsworth had crafted and planted. They were arranged in two neat rows of six, with lucky thirteen placed front and center. Carved into all the crosses were the names of the deceased.

She was alone; she had profusely thanked her friends for helping and asked for some time by herself. After a hug from Curie and a promise to "get absolutely pissed" from Cait, they had departed back to Sanctuary proper. After a day of rest, they were heading back to their homes.

"Hi," Nora said to the cross before her. "It's been a while. 210 years and eight months."

She fidgeted, twisting the wedding ring around her finger back and forth.

"I'm close to finding our son, Nate. I know who took him. I know how to get to them. I'm building something, a machine that can get me close to them."

"I...I have no idea what will be waiting for me. I've met so many wonderful people here, and they're all helping me, but...but I might not make it."

Nora slid the ring off her finger, leaving a band of pale, untanned skin behind. She played with it as she gathered her thoughts, flipping it over and over.

"I can't take that kind of step with so much of my past weighing me down. I hope you understand..." The tears she had refused to shed in the vault came now, quietly rolling down her cheeks. Her voice was shuddering as she spoke. "I always loved you, and I always will, but I need to let you go before I can move forward." She placed the gold band at the base of the cross before standing up.

"I swear to you, I'll find our son. I'll find Shaun and bring him home, and I'll make them pay for everything they've done."

She turned and began the trek back to Sanctuary. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shortly after, she began to put the moves on Curie.
> 
> Speaking of, I promise the next chapter will have more Curie. The last chapter will have lots of her to be sure.


	4. Failure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora returns to the Railroad after a week with the Institute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, seriously, am I doing this right?

Curie used to  _like_ sleeping.

Coming to a bed after a long day's trek with Nora, kicking off her shoes, and curling under the warm covers. Stretching out in pure bliss as her sore muscles relaxed. Sleeping was one of Curie's favorite things about her new body.

Except now her sleep was plagued with nightmares. She was on Spectacle Island, at Mercer Safehouse. Nora had given her a kiss goodbye before turning away. Her lips tingled as she watched her beloved step onto the strange, unwieldy device she and Tinker Tom had constructed.

Desdemona was shouting instructions over the din of the machine, but Curie wasn't listening. Her eyes were fixed on Nora's. The other woman raised a hand, perhaps to wave goodbye - 

Curie snapped awake, the sound of the teleporter exploding still echoing in her head. She was soaked in a cold sweat, and her heart was pounding. Months ago, she would have reveled in these novel sensations. Now, she was miserable, and all she wanted was to hold her lover again.

It had been a week since the explosion, and there had been no word of Nora. There was no way to tell if she had been vaporized in the blast, or had made it into the Institute. If she had, had she succesfully infiltrated the shadowy organization? Or had she been executed on the spot?

Curie sat up on the ratty mattress in Railroad HQ, rubbing her eyes. The alarm clock's dial read 3:23 a.m.. She groaned and threw the blankets off of herself. She knew she wasn't going to get back to sleep; even if she did, there'd just be more nightmares waiting for her. 

She put on her shoes and brushed her teeth before heading over to the medical station. Perhaps she could assist Dr. Carrington with something. For the past week they had been alternating shifts so the Railroad could have a doctor awake at all times in case of an emergency.

The tired looking doctor frowned disapprovingly as she approached. "You're up early. Again."

Curie smiled weakly at him. "I could not sleep, Dr. Carrington. I was wondering if you required assistance?"

Carrington sighed. "Curie, even if you're a synth, you still need your rest. You've barely slept at all this past - "

The doctor broke off, looking past Curie at something behind her. She turned around to see what had distracted him.

Nora stood there, her goggles down around her neck and her helmet hanging loosely from her hands. She gazed off into space, looking lost.

_"Nora!"_

Curie launched herself at the woman, wrapping her in a tight hug, uncaring of the way her metal chestplate poked uncomfortably against her ribs.

" _Ma couer,_ are you well? Did you make it to the Institute? We did not know if you made it, the machine simply exploded, I have been waiting for days and I was so worried..."

Curie babbled on as Nora slowly brought her hands up to return the hug. Dr. Carrington hurried off to Desdemona's private quarters to inform her of Nora's return.

"I-I'm fine, Curie," Nora said haltingly. "I made it to the Institute. I've been running missions for them for the past week."

"Hopefully nothing too sinister," Desdemona said as she and Carrington arrived. Having just gotten out of bed, she was dressed in a pre-war bathrobe she had hastily thrown over herself. 

Nora and Curie separated to face Desdemona, though Curie did maintain a tight grip on the other's hand.

"No, but you're going to want to hear this..." With a deep breath, Nora launched into the story of everything that had happened to her in the past week. Deacon, Glory, and Tom were woken by Drummer Boy so they could listen too.

They all sat down at the war table in the middle of HQ as Nora told them about Libertalia, about meeting Patriot, about the inside of the Institute and the people who lived there. Finally, she told them about the courser waiting outside Bunker Hill who intended to recapture the synths the Railroad was hiding there.

Plans were made to protect the synths at Bunker Hill, and to find an admin password for Patriot. Nora and Curie were about to leave to get some much needed rest, when Deacon stopped them.

"Fixer, you never said...did you find your son?"

Nora was silent for a moment before speaking. "He...he's the Director. Of the Institute."

Stunned silence greeted this revelation.

"The...the Director? But I thought your son was just a kid," Glory said.

"So did I," Nora said miserably. "It turns out I was on ice for 60 years after they took him. They needed his DNA to create the Gen 3 synths. Because it wasn't mutated or something like that. They...they call him 'Father'."

Tears that Nora hadn't had a chance to shed for a week finally began to find their way down her face. "He...he called the death of Nate, his  _father,_ my  _husband,_  'collateral damage'! He had me released from Vault 111 as some kind of...twisted experiment." She angrily dashed the tears away, her breaths coming in shuddering gasps. The rest of the group shifted uncomfortably, not knowing what to say.

"Oh, _cherie..._ " Curie said, taking her lover into her arms comfortingly. Nora huddled miserably in her embrace as the synth whispered soothing things in French.

"He made a synth version of himself as a child," Nora managed to say. "Set the whole thing up so the child would be the first person I saw, just so he fucking could watch what happened."

The grief welled up within her until she couldn't speak. Her promise to Nate swam to the forefront of her mind. She was supposed to save their son. To bring him home, wherever home was in this wasteland. Little had she known, she had failed 60 years before she had even started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment. Please. I'm begging you. I have no idea if what I'm writing is good or garbage. Send help.


	5. Why?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora is on the warpath when she encounters Shaun on his deathbed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you see any grammatical or spelling errors, point them out so I can correct them. Also give comments.
> 
> Fun fact: this was originally going to be a scene in my Glory / f!ss work "Glorious" but I decided not to write it because I didn't feel as though it would have fit.

"I didn't expect to see you again."

Nora turned away from the terminal, seeing the old, withered man on the hospital bed. Straightening up from where she was hunched over the keyboard, she made her way to his bedside, the Quantum X-01 power armor clanking with every step. Curie, in her Tesla T-60, moved to follow, but Nora gestured for her to work on the terminal.

"You had me fooled. I really believed you were on our side."

Nora reached up and removed her helmet, revealing sorrowful eyes on a tired face. The power armor had her towering above him, so she knelt at his bedside.

"I'm sorry it's come to this, Shaun."

"You're sorry?" He scoffed. "You can't be that sorry, if you're here going through with it." He paused for breath, and she could see the effort it took him.

"It's not enough that I lay here dying...Now you plan on, what? Destroying everything?  _Why?_ " He spat the last word forcefully, causing him to go into a coughing fit. 

Nora waited for him to settle down before replying. "You've never really seen the Commonwealth, Shaun." He opened his mouth to reply, but she waved him to silence. "Oh, you visited once, and I'm sure you've read read reports about it, and even seen images and recordings. But you've never really  _seen_ it. And yet you presume to say that it's doomed, that humanity's last hope lies with you."

"There are  _people_ up there, Shaun, _communities_. And they're  _thriving!_ The Minutemen are back in force, crops are being grown, trade routes are being established. The raiders and ferals and super mutants are clearing out or being cleared out. They're not perfect, they're struggling, but they're good people and they're _trying_."

"You say you're going to save the Commonwealth, but you haven't saved a damn thing. You've used the 'Wealth as a petri dish to advance your own goals. You murder and torture and replace innocent people. You created an entirely new race, just to enslave it. You reduced your own family to a science experiment and 'collateral damage'."

Shaun was silent in the face of her angered speech. After a long, pregnant pause, Nora spoke. "I promised your father that I would save our son. But I think we both know, you and I, that you're not my son. And I don't think you have been for a very long time." Her vision blurred as her eyes welled up and tears spilled over her scarred face.

She stood up, her power armor whirring and clanking as she did.

"Goodbye, Shaun."

"Goodbye...Nora."

Nora turned away and put her helmet back on, hiding the tears behind the metal. Curie had long since finished overriding the lockdown and issuing the evacuation order. They left the room, readying their weapons as they went. 

Behind them, Shaun closed his eyes, and did not open them again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to be finished a week ago but I'm a moron who decided to read a 100k word Mass Effect Shakarian fic instead.
> 
> Anyway, I promise the next chapter is gonna be nothing but pure, unadulterated fluff.
> 
> Give comments.


	6. Celebration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora and Synth Shaun are planning something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright. I really hated how they went out of their way to establish that Synth Shaun would never grow up. I really really hate that. So in this fic, and all of my FO4 fics, consider that particular piece of information to be false. In my fanon Shaun, and all the other synths, will eventually grow up, grow old, and die.  
> The synths were used for infiltration, anyway. They'd be useless after a couple of years if they didn't age. So stupid.  
> Anyway, here's the fluff chapter.

Nora dozed peacefully on the couch, her head pillowed in Curie's lap as the synth idly flipped through a Massachusetts Surgical Journal. Magnolia's smoke-and-silk voice drifted through Home Plate from the radio on the kitchen counter. Codsworth floated by, happily dusting the furniture and empty Power Armor suits as he passed. 

The peace was interrupted by a knocking at the door under the stairs. 

"I'll get it!" Shaun shouted. He was playing games on the terminal on the other side of the house and was closest to the door. He opened it to reveal Doctor Sun in his dirty lab coat. 

"Hey, Doctor. Something I can help you with?"

"I needed to talk to Curie. Is she home?" Sun asked.

"Yeah, she's in the living room. I'll go get her."

Shaun retrieved Curie (with much protesting from his mother, who was enjoying her lap pillow), and she and Doctor Sun left, discussing various medical matters. 

When the door closed, Shaun ran into the living room, grinning hugely. "Mom! She's gone! Let's go!"

Nora was now sitting up on the couch, grinning back at her son. She stood and followed as Shaun ran into the kitchen area. 

During her travels, Nora had managed to salvage an old, pre-war oven/range combo and a refrigerator. She opened the fridge and took out the eggs, butter, and milk while Shaun raided the pantry for flour and sugar. Codsworth retrieved the mixing bowls and measuring cups from the cabinets. 

They worked until mid-afternoon. Nora let Shaun crack the eggs and taste the batter, much to his delight. They weren't worried about Curie walking in on them; they all knew she and Doctor Sun could spend hours talking about science and medicine. 

Finally, they had a simple but tasty looking cake. They waited for it to cool and then started frosting it. Nora had paid Daisy a fortune for homemade chocolate frosting, a hundred times better than expired pre-war stuff. While they were finishing up, there was another knock on the door. 

Nora opened it to reveal Professor Scara and Doctor Duff, who had foregone their usual lab coats. They were dressed in casual clothes now, jeans and long-sleeved button ups. 

Nora smiled at them and motioned for then to enter. "Hi! Thank you so much for coming." 

The couple smiled back at her as they stepped inside. "Of course! We wouldn't miss it," Duff said excitedly.

Since Nora and Curie had settled permanently in Diamond City, Curie had gotten a job working alongside Doctor Sun at the clinic. She also spent much of her free time at the Science Center. Duff had been eager to befriend the newcomer, although Professor Scara had been more reserved. Eventually, Curie had won over the professor, and now enjoyed a close friendship with the two scientists.

After the professor and doctor, more of their friends showed up. Piper and Nat Wright arrived shortly after, with Shaun and Nat running off to play as soon as they saw each other. Cait barged in without knocking and promptly settled herself on the couch. Nick Valentine followed more politely and was greeted by Piper on his way in. 

"Hey, Nicky. Where's Ellie?" The reporter asked.

"She's by Power Noodles, waiting for the good doctors to finish up. She'll run back here ahead of them and give us the heads up."

An hour passed while they waited. The guests mingled and Nora caught up with the people she hadn't been able to see in a while. She spoke with Cait, who had found work as a bodyguard. Based out of Goodneighbor, she escorted people around the Commonwealth, mostly to and from Diamond City or Bunker Hill. 

"How's Goodneighbor these days?" Nora asked her while they chatted on the couch.

"A fuckin' shitehole, just the way I like it." Cait grinned. "Oh, by the way, Hancock asked me to tell you he's sorry he couldn't make it. He's busy mayoring or something. I wasn't really listening."

Just then, Codsworth hovered over to them, arms waving in agitation as he asked Cait to please kindly take her feet off the coffee table. Cait responded with a torrent of Irish swearing. Nora grinned and left the two of them to it, making sure Shaun and Nat were out of earshot. 

Another hour passed and the guests were getting restless.

"Y'think Sun forgot he was supposed to bring her here? You know how those two get when they start talking about medicine," Doctor Duff asked.

Scara scoffed. "You're the exact same way."

"So are you!" Duff retaliated. 

"Maybe I should go check on them," Piper suggested, rising from her chair by the kitchen counter. 

Before she could take two steps, the door opened and Ellie slipped in.

"They're on their way!" She said.

"Nick, hit the lights," Nora ordered as she turned off the radio. Nick obeyed, flipping the switch on the wall. The windowless house was plunged into darkness.

Everyone huddled in the shadows, waiting for the door to open and Curie to step through. Everyone, save for Nick, held their breath as the doorknob began turning. The door opened, revealing a figure silhouetted in the afternoon light.

"Why is it so dark in here?" A French accented voiced wondered. She stepped further into the house. "Nora, are you there? Shaun?"

" _SURPRISE!_ " 

Nick had flipped the lights back on as they jumped up and shouted, startling poor Curie out of her wits. She jumped a full foot into the air, letting out the cutest squeak of fright as she did so. She pressed a hand to her chest as she fought to regain her composure. She looked around with wide eyes at the laughing faces of her friends. 

"Nora, what is going on?" She demanded, as her lover moved forward to give her a kiss on the cheek, giggling all the while.

"It's a surprise party!" Shaun exclaimed.

"A surprise...party?" Curie was thoroughly confused.

"For your birthday," a grinning Doctor Sun explained from behind her.

"Happy birthday, Curie," Nora said, the sentiment echoed by the others in the room. 

"My birth-? But, I was not..."

Nora waved her hand dismissively. "We know you weren't  _born_ , not really, but today is the one-year anniversary of when you were put into a synth body. It's close enough."

"But why the surprise?"

"Because seeing the look on your face when we all jumped up was the funniest thing to happen all week," Ellie teased.

Curie pouted, but everyone could see the small smile she was trying to hide. "You are making fun of me on my birthday!"

"We brought presents, too!" Nat said excitedly.

"And mum and young Shaun and I baked a cake," Codsworth added.

"Well...I suppose you can be forgiven. This time," Curie said with a smile that left Nora feeling warm and light on her feet.

They sliced and ate the cake, which was a rousing success. The partygoers moaned in pleasure as they tasted it, while Nick looked on wistfully. Many of them hadn't ever tasted real desserts, the closest thing being 200-year-old pre-war junkfoods. Scara suggested that Nora and Codsworth open a bakery.

Then came the presents. Nick and Ellie had managed to track down some pre-war medical textbooks in relatively good condition, and Curie was awestruck at the sight of them. She gazed at them reverently before bring shaken out of her daze by Cait handing her her gift.

"There's  _more?_ " Curie asked, shocked.

Everyone had brought something. Cait's gift consisted of a box of pristine romance novels, with covers depicting topless women clutching heavily muscled men (and sometimes heavily muscled women). Curie's face turned bright red, and she slammed the box closed just before Nat and Shaun could peek in. 

After Cait's laughter had died down, Doctor Sun presented his gift, a functional video recorder.

"Wish I had that earlier, so I could record that adorable squeak you made when we surprised you," Nora joked, earning her an affectionate elbow in the ribs from Curie.

Piper and Nat had spent some caps and gotten Curie a sizable package of medical supplies for her to use in the clinic. They had wrapped the box in ribbon, which Curie saved for later. Codsworth and Shaun had collaborated in procuring holotape recordings of Curie's favorite songs from the radio. Upon recieving them, she immediately grabbed Nora's arm so she could insert one into the Pip-Boy on her wrist. "Atom Bomb Baby" began playing as Scara and Duff handed her their present. 

It was a bright white bundle of cloth, which Curie unfolded to reveal a spotless white lab coat. 

"Oh, it's wonderful!" Curie gushed, immediately standing up so she could try it on. It was a perfect fit.

"We thought since you spend so much time at the Science Center that you should have the uniform for it," Scara explained. 

"I love it! Thank you!" Curie wrapped both of them in a hug, which they gladly returned. Curie disengaged from them and went around the room, embracing her friends and thanking them profusely. 

Nora broke out the beer for the adults and the soft drinks for Nat and Shaun. The party continued for a couple more hours as everyone mingled and chatted. Eventually, the guests began leaving in ones and twos, retiring to their homes and beds. Piper had to carry Nat home, her sister fast asleep in her arms.

Soon, it was just Nora and Curie. Shaun was asleep in the loft, which Nora had built into a proper room with walls and a door when he first moved in. Codsworth was in sleep mode on the other side of the house.

Now she was sitting on their bed in her pajamas, watching Curie put her various gifts away. When she was finished, she joined Nora on the bed. 

"Today was just lovely, _cherie_. Thank you so much."

"It's not over yet," Nora replied, reaching into the drawer of her nightstand and retrieving a small box. She held it out to Curie. "For you. Happy birthday."

Curie's eyes widened. "Oh, but you've done so much already, I can't - "

Nora put a finger to her lips to silence her. "I want you to have this, Curie. You deserve it." Slowly, Curie took the box and opened it. Inside, on a leather string, was a silver pendant depicting a snake winding around a staff.

"It's the Rod of Asclepius," Nora explained nervously. "It's the symbol for medicine and healing. I figured you'd prefer it to the Caduceus, which doesn't even have anything to do with medicine, but if you - "

"I love it," Curie interjected. She looked up from the pendant and met Nora's eyes. "And I love you. Thank you, for everything."

"I love you too, Curie."

Curie placed the necklace on their nightstand, not wanting to wear it to sleep.  Nora kissed her then, and Curie ran her fingers through her hair. They laid down on the bed, pulling the covers up around them as they arranged themselves. 

They fell asleep cuddling, Nora holding Curie from behind, both of them utterly content in the life they had created for themselves. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, comments are appreciated.  
> Greatly appreciated.  
> Pls.


End file.
